From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 78 Another LK-99? This is going to be a big deal!

The information released by the Dongchuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology was released with great eagerness.

They've been holding back for days.

There is also technological competition among provinces in China, which is mainly reflected in the competition of key indicators such as investment in scientific and technological innovation, R&D funding, and the transformation of innovative achievements.

In terms of scientific and technological achievements, Dongchuan Province, while not ranking at the bottom nationwide, still lags significantly behind provinces with similar economic scale.

This is mainly because there are few prestigious universities and top-notch research institutions in the province.

Now that such achievements have been made, everyone in the Provincial Department of Science and Technology seems to have breathed a sigh of relief and is eager to release the news, even making sure to include the name 'Dongchuan Province' in the title of the announcement.

This research must bear the mark of 'Dongchuan Province'.

The provincial science and technology department issuing a research results announcement is a very significant event.

Opening the official website of the Dongjiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology, there is not a single announcement of research results. They are not on the homepage, and are also difficult to find in the categories.

Their announcements are usually similar to "Special Seminar on the Integrated Promotion of [Specific Aspect]", "A Leader Attends Academic Conference on Interdisciplinary Medical Engineering", "Science and Technology Department Holds Special Lecture on Quantum Technology", "Science and Technology Research Institute Organizes Screening of Films on the War of Resistance Against Japan", and so on.

Suddenly, an announcement about a scientific research achievement appeared on the official website's homepage. The news photos next to it were changed to laboratory backgrounds instead of a bunch of pictures of leaders in meetings. Just a glance at it felt very novel.

The next moment you'll notice the keywords in the title of the achievement—

Room temperature superconductivity!

Some media workers noticed the change in the official website announcement and their first reaction was, "Has he conquered room-temperature superconductivity?"

"Is the Provincial Department of Science and Technology celebrating April Fool's Day too?"

The announcement on Jiangzhou University's official website was even more straightforward, with a title that clearly stated the situation, and it even added the prefix "the biggest scientific and technological challenge of the 21st century," making it impossible for it to go unnoticed.

Everyone who saw the results immediately—students, faculty, staff, and people outside the university—was stunned by the information.

A large number of media outlets became aware of the information.

Regardless of whether the source of the information is the Dongjiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology or Jiangzhou University, they will repost and publish any information without hesitation, because the information comes from their official websites.

The information released on the official website doesn't need to be considered for its authenticity at all; just close your eyes and hype it up as much as possible.

Within just half an hour, the internet was flooded with media reports.

Jiangzhou University team overcomes the challenge of room-temperature superconductivity!

"The biggest technological challenge of the 21st century has been overcome, thanks to the Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory at Jiangzhou University!"

A research team in Dongjiang Province has developed a room-temperature superconducting material!

The biggest scientific breakthrough of the new century has occurred!

Room-temperature superconductivity...

A lot of news, a lot of reports.

In such a short time, some people who saw the announcement immediately didn't even finish reading the entire announcement.

Such a significant achievement certainly cannot be announced with only one title.

There's a whole lot more detailed information below—

"In our university's Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory, doctoral student Zhang Minghao, together with Professor Zhu Bingkun, Professor Xue Kun, and others, developed and manufactured a multilayer tinene thin film material."

"This is a special material made of two-dimensional atomic layers. It has 100% conductivity at room temperature and also exhibits Ising superconductivity, allowing it to withstand extremely strong magnetic fields..."

"The new material has been named STN-01..."

"Stanene is a single-atom-layer material, similar to graphene, and possesses..."

"The material possesses topological edge state properties, thereby achieving 100% conductivity at room temperature..."

"Stanene, predicted by Professor Shou-Cheng Zhang's team at Stanford University, will become the world's first supermaterial to achieve 100% conductivity at room temperature, far surpassing graphene, which has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, and enabling energy-loss-free electron transport at room temperature..."

"The principle is that, in stanene, the spin-orbit coupling effect of the pxy orbitals is much stronger than that of the pz orbitals, so the band reversal of the sp orbitals can open a huge band gap of several hundred millielectron volts at the center of the Brillouin zone..."

After a lengthy introduction, the announcement stated, "Our university's Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory team has successfully fabricated multilayer tinene thin film materials, directly detected topological edge states and Ising superconductivity, and verified the prediction of 100% conductivity at room temperature."

"Congratulations to our doctoral students Zhang Minghao, Professor Zhu Bingkun, Professor Xue Kun, and Professor Fang Huimin for working together to complete such a significant research project."

"STN-01 will surely become a driving force for humanity to achieve a technological revolution in the 21st century..."

……

After the announcements from the Provincial Department of Science and Technology and Jiangzhou University were reprinted and published by various media outlets, they immediately attracted a large amount of online attention.

The related news quickly climbed to the top of the trending lists on various online platforms.

#Room-temperature superconductivity has been mastered#
#Jiangzhou University Room Temperature Superconductivity#
#Zhang Minghao develops room-temperature superconducting materials#
One keyword news item after another ignited public opinion.

There's also been a lot of discussion online, with questions like, "Room-temperature superconductivity has been cracked? Impossible, right?"

"The content I read seems to say that it conducts electricity at room temperature, not that it is superconducting at room temperature."

"The title says room-temperature superconductivity. Regardless of the principle, the result is the same!"

"Could it be another LK-99?"

"It's just been manufactured, but it hasn't been said whether it can be used. Hopefully, it won't be like the LK-99, which was just hyped up."

"If it's true, that would be amazing! Technology is about to take off!"

Of course, there were also many dissenting voices online.

Some experts have questioned this, saying, "We haven't even been able to prepare a single-layer tinene film yet, so how could we possibly create a multi-layer tinene film material?"

"That's a huge leap!"

"Moreover, the description is not precise. It is not room temperature superconductivity, but 100% conductivity at room temperature. Such a material would have a very low current carrying capacity and low application value."

Meanwhile, other scholars, or self-media outlets seeking to generate traffic, have also come forward to express their disapproval.

The experts online are right; multilayer tinene thin film materials are indeed not room-temperature superconducting materials. To be precise, they should be 100% conductive at room temperature.

The two are completely different; their underlying physical rules are not the same.

However, the result was the same.

As long as the result is the same, calling it room-temperature superconductivity is not an exaggeration.

Another very important point is that the principle of '100% conductivity at room temperature' is very complex, and we still need to explain why it conducts 100% electricity at room temperature.

Room temperature superconductivity—everything became clear at once.

For professional scholars, they do not rely solely on information published online to make judgments. Some scholars with extensive information channels will immediately seek out various connections to verify the authenticity of the information.

The Provincial Department of Science and Technology and Jiangzhou University immediately became busy.

Officials from the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, including those at Jiangzhou University from the president and vice-presidents down to professors and ordinary staff in the School of Physics, started receiving non-stop phone calls.

The incident even affected other colleges.

A business school professor received a call from a friend who immediately asked, "Is it true that your school has developed room-temperature superconducting materials?"

The professor who received the call was a little stunned.

Superconductivity at room temperature?

I'm a business school professor, and you're asking me this?
Officials or professors who knew the information explained a few things when asked, but later found that the phone kept ringing and their messaging apps were almost overwhelmed with messages.

The busy work of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology and Jiangzhou University shows just how popular the matter is.

Soon a large group of reporters came knocking on the door.

Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory.

Xue Kun, Zhu Bingkun, and others continued to work on their experiments.

After conducting the second batch of experiments, they immediately began the third batch, hoping to produce more samples.

The group of people were all diligent and hardworking, but it wasn't easy to find professional work. Reporters who had arrived surrounded the laboratory door.

Jiangzhou University was prepared for this situation, with many security guards on duty nearby and a cordon set up at the laboratory entrance to prevent unauthorized personnel from crossing the boundary into the laboratory.

However, reporters cannot simply kick people out during interviews, since they are all legitimate media outlets.

When Zhang Minghao entered, he was recognized by reporters. After all, he had been on the news a few times and could be considered a minor celebrity.

A large group of reporters surrounded him, and a bunch of microphones were brought to his mouth.

"Could you tell me about your room-temperature superconductivity?" a reporter asked immediately.

Zhang Minghao quickly stretched out his arm to protect himself from reporters rushing at him, and then said, "To correct you, it's not room temperature superconductivity, it's 100% conductivity at room temperature."

"Actually, it's not 100% conductive. The resistivity of the material we prepared is seven orders of magnitude lower than that of copper, but it's still far from being superconducting..."

The reporters ignored the technical data and immediately asked, "Does the development of superconducting materials mean that a technological revolution is about to begin?"

"Uh~~~"

Zhang Minghao thought for a moment and said, "I can only say that this material may be used in the high-tech field."

Currently, the cost of materials is too high.

They only produced two pieces of material, which together, when laid flat, were no bigger than two fingers, and the cost had already exceeded one million.

Because it involves the manipulation of atoms, technological upgrades are not so easy.

In the future, with the improvement of technology and large-scale manufacturing, the cost will definitely decrease, but it will still be beyond the reach of ordinary technology fields.

Zhang Minghao answered a few questions, but noticed that the reporters showed no signs of leaving.

He suddenly saw a figure appear at the doorway and immediately pointed in that direction, shouting, "Look! The key person in the research and development team is here!"

While the reporters were still stunned, he quickly squeezed his way through and rushed into the laboratory without looking back.

Doorway.

Chen Shuai glanced at the surrounding reporters, grinned, and said, "I'm Chen Shuai, what questions do you have?"

"Chen Shuai?"

"This person doesn't seem to be on the R&D roster, does he?"

"No, just Zhang Minghao, two men, and a female professor..."

hula la...

The reporters quickly left.

Chen Shuai looked left and right, waved his hand somewhat unwillingly, and finally muttered in dissatisfaction, "Not going to interview me?"

"I don't want to do an interview yet!"

"Humph!"

……

A wave of news hype lasted all day.

Just by looking at the news, I feel like tomorrow human technology will experience a leap forward.

Following the widespread media coverage, public skepticism has increased, with some platforms even highlighting a key word in the criticism—

#Another LK99#.

LK-99 originates from a paper published in the Peninsula Journal, which describes a material named 'LK-99' that exhibits room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductivity.

The MML conference held later in the peninsula's capital featured a special report on LK-99.

Following the special report, LK-99 immediately became a hot topic worldwide, and was quickly confirmed by the media as a room-temperature superconducting material that would revolutionize technology at an extremely rapid pace.

Room-temperature superconducting materials are very attractive, and they are also very attractive to various research teams.

Many professional experimental institutions have joined the work of preparing LK-99 material. In the following month, many teams prepared LK-99, but found that there was no room temperature superconductivity.

Ultimately, a report in Nature magazine summarized the results of repeated experiments from different laboratories around the world, pointing out that LK-99 is not a room-temperature superconductor and explaining why this material exhibits superconducting-like behavior.

The once-famous LK-99 has finally been finalized.

This is the LK-99 incident, also known as a farce involving room-temperature superconducting materials.

Will the room-temperature superconducting material 'STN-01', which Jiangzhou University has announced it has manufactured, become a new LK-99?

……

Donggang University Condensed Matter Physics Research Center

Office on the second floor.

Yang Xuewen stood on tiptoe, his face full of disdain. "Room-temperature superconducting materials? How dare they even mention that!"

"Another LK-99!"

He chuckled and said, "Zhang Minghao discovered the ZXZ phenomenon, made a stealth sphere, and now he's researched room-temperature superconducting materials?"

"Do you think you're a god?"

An Boju frowned and remained silent. Zhang Minghao was certainly not a god, but his research and development capabilities were undeniable.

The ZXZ phenomenon, also known as the Zhang phenomenon, is recognized by the international physics community.

There have been many reports about the invisibility sphere, but the follow-up is unclear. However, higher authorities would certainly be interested in similar technologies.

The current STN-01...

An Boju thought for a moment and said, "They created a multilayered stanene material, right? It's definitely not a room-temperature superconductor. Xuewen, do you think it's impossible?"

"Absolutely impossible!"

Yang Xuewen's tone was very certain, "I also know about tinene thin films. This two-dimensional material hasn't even completed theoretical measurements yet, but they say they've created multi-layered, or three-dimensional, materials?"

"Teacher An, do you think it's possible?"

Anboju nodded thoughtfully; he also thought it was unlikely.

"It's just hype."

Yang Xuewen continued, "Let's not talk about that. I think his experiment might be fake."

At this point, he became much more serious. "My team has studied it again and again. ZXZ does exist, but its impact is negligible."

"His experimental paper describes direct airflow, but the measuring instruments he used are not standard, and there are also problems with the wording in the paper."

"Later they said they 'clearly felt the air movement,' but who knows if there are other contributing factors?"

"The lab environment wasn't good. There might have been a draft if the door was open while conducting experiments, which he noticed. Otherwise, why wouldn't he have noticed it after so many experiments?"

Amber asked, "Have other international teams made any progress?"

"There has been no progress."

Yang Xuewen said, "I talked with the team from the University of Chicago yesterday. They have also done countless experiments and are almost ready to give up."

Anboju pondered for a moment and said, "We could also temporarily refrain from replicating the experiment and instead focus our research on ZXZ."

"The ZXZ phenomenon is clear, and research on it is definitely promising."

Yang Xuewen nodded seriously, then turned his attention back to the news, laughing gleefully, "STN-01, another LK-99."

"Now the news is out overseas. I've seen it reported by many major international media outlets, including The Times and Al Jazeera."

"This has blown up badly. Let's see how they handle this!"

(End of this chapter)